4D Group Members

I want to understand how and why the developing brain is so diverse, and how this diversity is linked to different cognitive, learning and mental health outcomes.

Dr Duncan Astle

Group Leader

I am working on the longitudinal follow-up of the CALM cohort

Silvana Mireva
Research Fellow

I am interested in causal mechanisms relating genes and brain structure/function with cognition, and how these trajectories change over time, using large open-access neuroimaging datasets with children and adolescents.

Alicja Monaghan
PhD student

I am interested in the different domains of resilience at the neural and behavioural levels and how they impact child development and mental health.

Stepheni Uh

PhD student, Gates Scholar

I am interested in the brain mechanism of resilience and how being resilient affects  education and everyday life.

Dr Roma Siugzdaite

Research Fellow

I am interested in capturing the inherent complexity of neurodevelopmental diversity by describing the barriers that children with learning difficulties encounter in everyday life and finding the multiple neurocognitive pathways that lead to these barriers, irrespective of diagnostic status. 

Dr Elia Benhamou

Research Fellow

My research involves looking at the interaction between genetic, neural, environmental, and cognitive mechanisms that promote resilience during childhood development.

Tess Smith

PhD student

I am interested in the effects of various forms of childhood adversity, especially abuse and neglect, on neurodevelopment and cognitive function.

Sofia Carozza

PhD student

I am interested in how structural and functional brain organisation develops in childhood, how this trajectory is altered in struggling learners, and how this is related to cognition and behaviour.

Dr Jonathan Jones

Research Fellow

My goal is to understand the environmental mechanisms behind social inequalities in educational and mental health outcomes. 

Giacomo Bignardi
Research Fellow

I am interested in the neural mechanisms underlying hyperfocus, an immersive state of heightened attention, in those with neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD.

Natalia Zdorovtsova

PhD student

I'm interested in how the growth of complex brain networks relate to neurodevelopmental trajectories and underlying sub-groupings of disorders.

Dr Danyal Akarca

PhD student

My role is to support the cohorts at the MRC CBU, in particular I work on the CamCAN and CALM to make sure we maximise access to the data

Tina Emery

Research Associate

I work closely with families in CALM, coordinating a large team of staff and students to collect the longitudinal follow-up.

Grace Frankel

Research Associate

Lab Alumni

We are incredibly proud of our past lab members!

Dr Edwin Dalmaijer
 

After a postdoc in the lab, Edwin went on to start his lab as PI, at the University of Bristol

Dr Andria Shimi
 

After a postdoc in the lab, Andria went on start her own lab as PI, at the University of Cyprus

Dr Jessica Barnes
 

Jess completed a postdoc in the lab, before going on to work within the Behavioural Insights team within Government

After completing a postdoc in the lab, Joe went on to run his own group as PI at Royal Holloway, University of London

Dr Joe Bathelt
 

Dr Erin Hawkins
 

Erin completed a postdoc in the lab before going on to work in Government, within the Department for Education

Dr Mengya Zhang
 

After completing a PhD in the lab, Mengya went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in Shanghai